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Made a comment about the size somewhere on AT,trying to look at volume over similar tablets and you can even look at volume per screen area to factor in differences in scree sizes and AR. If you compare it to the Tab S 8.4 the Shield is quite huge not just heavy.For a mobile device,mobility is important, for a pocketable device even more so and 8 inch is pocketable for some.No wifi ac , not great screen and no emmc 5 are not exactly a plus.As for the price,300$ is just too much for any 8 inch tablet ,even if it was high res. Sure some are pricing their products well above that, but that's no reason to accept it as reasonable. You also got a bunch of A53 based SoCs from Qualcomm, Mediatek , Marvell and a bunch of A17 and A15 based SoCs from Mediatek, Rockchip and Allwinner.all arriving now. Qualcomm actually just said they'll launch the 810 this year, no idea if launch means ship or devices in stores( my bet is on the Nexus phone to be using it but remains to be seen)So no thanks,as a tablet is so not good enough, as a gaming tablet maybe it is but not very sure Nvidia should aim to make just a gaming tablet. I've been waiting for a while for a good enough tablet and was looking forward to this one so it was a rather huge let down. Guess i'll end up with some China tab that makes a lot more sense.If it was 250$ and a lot more compact it would be lovely , if it was same body just thinner and 8.8 inch screen at 300$ i would have at least considered it as an option.Reply

Everyone has his own opinion but I don't agree with yours. For me, the price is well positioned. It's really easy to forget the incredible performance and say that every other parameter is meh. But no, SHIELD Tablet is, before anything else, the fastest Android device, and not by small margin, but more than 2 times faster than the closest competition on the heavy Manhattan test. The price is very cheap for this performance, and other parameters are very descent, so I'm ordering one, like many people on Amazon (in Top 5 bestseller tablets now) Reply

The performance is not just the GPU , and the SOC is just a 25-30$ part and being the fastest today means little especially when you might be way slow in just a few months (Snapdragon 810 is quad A57 plus quad A53 and cat 6 LTE on 20nm. A57 is supposed to be quite a bit faster, 20nm adds quite a bit more to that and then software optimized for V8 even more). Other SoCs that are showing up might not be that slow compared to TK1 and you don't really have the software for TK1 anyway while the tablet is just 1200p.Then if you want TK1 for w/e reason ,there is the Xiaomi Mipad with higher res screen and similar price for western buyers but prices will drop a bit when there will be better supply. That one is 4:3 so maybe a deal breaker for many. And there will be other TK1 devices ofc. Sure they might not have some of the gaming but i stated in my comment that it's not good enough as a tablet but might be as a gaming tablet.Reply

But isn't that also applicable to other SoC vendors? The S810 (which is still more than a few months away) will, within a few months of its arrival, be supplanted by whatever Intel or Nvidia push out next.

Heck, if TK1's performance is anything to go by, you can be certain that Nvidia's Erista with a Maxwell gpu will likely destroy whatever Qualcomm or Intel have in store. Looking at what Nvidia has with them now and what will be available next year, Erista will likely be maxwell paired with some evolution of Denver or maybe A57/A53 combo.

Fact of the matter (as hard as you find it to believe) is that this tablet is awesome, especially for the price. Do I want more for my money? Obviously...who doesn't. But that does not mean Shield tablet is lacking or bad in any way. Reply

As i understood your comment ,you suggested it deserves some kind of significant premium because it is very fast and i don't agree with that. Now ,this is not about the SoC anyway, it is about the tablet. Yes the SoC is rather exciting today and i would love a tablet with it but not this one.The fact is that it's like 45% bigger ,volume wise, than the Tab S 8.4 if we look at a very compact tablet as the benchmark. It also has a 10% smaller screen by area and you can find better value elsewhere.maybe not at Best Buy but that's not a problem. And it is lacking , it is lacking wifi ac , it is lacking in screen quality it's by no means high end,corners have been cut. And the bulk is bad ,over 9 mm thick today is ridiculous.Reply

Again it's you opinion and you can't expect anybody to agree with you.Tab S8.4 ? GPU slow as hell with Touchwiz crap UI that is a total no go. it can be as thin as it wants but it doesn't suit me.On the other side, if I want max performance that will permit me to play Android 3D games for the next 2 years, with stock android and timely updates, then SHIELD tablet is the best choice.Reply

As i said this is not about the SoC, it's about the package and this is not hte only Tegra K1 product we will see. Right now it's just this one and the Xiaomi but we'll see more and even now the Xiaomi is 240$ in China (300 more or less outside but that price will drop) while having higher res and wifi ac.The comparison with the Samsung was about size and what others are doing when it comes to ergonomics/design.And if you cared about the long term you would wait for 64 bit SoCs on 20nm not go for anything on the market now.You got excited about the SoC and you are ignoring everything else. Yes the SoC is rather exciting but Nvidia should have done a lot better with the tablet. This is not a Nexus gen one moment or first Amazon tablet moment but it could have been given how exciting the SoC is and how terrible the Android tablet landscape is right now (outside China i guess ,since there things are much better). Last year we had no great tablet launched when factoring in the price too, nothing really exciting, even the Nexus was rather daft and sales are in line the products available to us. World wide tablet sales have slowed down in a big way, When it comes to Android gaming ,it would have mattered a lot if this SoC would have sold really well , devs are not going to invest in games for it if there isn't a big install base. Would be nice to have better Android games but this is not going to do it. In the end if Nvidia was only interested about promoting gaming they would price it at 200$ and make no money on it , they could have made a better device,sell it cheaper and make more money on volume but this just seems a missed opportunity.Reply

I read all of your responses, and to be frank, your totally missing the point of how versatile of a device this is.

This device can be used for the following:

* Tablet for surfing the web and playing games* Roku 3 box for your tv with better performance or i should say Amazon Fire box since it has voice control.* A Mobile Netflix station with the best speakers ever put into a tablet, with native 1080p streaming.* WebTV Box for surfing the web on your tv (complete with mouse cursor and keyboard via bluetooth)* Gaming Console for travel, Both Android games and Nvidia K1 games (the list will get bigger this year)* Brings your PC Gaming to any room that has a TV in your house (via hdmi out)* A digital art tool for painting and drawing* A One Note machine for annotating pdf's or any other document* A Skype station with amazing front facing camera and stereo front facing speakers* A mobile Plex Media Server with 128GB micro SD card support and USB OTG support for External HDD's* A mobile SNES, N64, PSP, PS2, Emulator Station with low latency controller (none of that bluetooth crap)* A Universal Remote with apps (this is the tablet to take to bed with you)

My point being, sure it could be slimmer, and sexier, but this is a feature heavy tablet that is 100% the most versatile tablet in this price range.Reply

The Galaxy Tab S 8.4 you're referring to is $399. For a $100 less, the Shield tablet gives you an order of magnitude better performance, much better speakers, a stylus, a decent screen, and decent wifi...all on top of the gaming features which no one else has come close to offering (gamestream, grid, Twitch streaming etc.).

Would you have bought this device if it had 802.11ac, were less than 9mm and cost $399 instead?Reply

1. Reads review2. Reads specs3. Swaps this for this, that for this, and this for that4. Would also like it to drive him/her home, do laundry and feed dog5. Oh, and it has to be $50 to $100 less than whatever the listed price is6. Was really hoping to get the device, but because it doesn't do 3,4 and 5, no buenoReply

Yeah - it's bigger and heavier. But when stuff is toothpick thick and the weight of a feather then it really isn't much of a problem to deal with 2x weight and thickness even.And for that you get performance. Not just the processing but also everything I've read says the sound is a lot better than other tablets generally. That'd be nice. Reply

Pricing seems quite reasonable to me, and I'm cheap. A 32GB WiFi/LTE Retina iPad Mini is $629. I'm pretty sure $500 is less than $629. And that $629 doesn't include the smart cover or a good controller. So apples to apples would be about $500 vs $729. You also get a mostly unmolested Android experience which so far has a better track record for updates than most OEMs.Reply

" the K1 GPU delivers the goods, topping the charts in most of our graphics benchmarks.""one of the fastest Android tablets around"Sorry Jarred, are you kidding ? is it so difficult to admit that SHIELD Tablet is THE and BY FAR fastest android tablet ? Don't we see the same numbers ? more than 2 times the performance of the mighty A7 under Manhattan and 2 times faster than the not yet available S805 ?if Apple came with something this performance, blowing away the competition by miles, I can't imagine the superlative adjective you will come with... but no, instead it's like you are disgusted that Nvidia delivers...So for the readers of Anand, SHIELD Tablet IS IN A TOTALLY SEPARATE LEAGUE when comes to performance. It must be said. Period.Reply

GPU performance? Sure. But that's only one aspect of an SoC, and definitely a tablet SoC. For example, the vast majority of people looking to buy a new Android tablet would be better off with a GPU that's lower performance but better perf-per-watt//battery life. The same can be said for WiFi performance and storage as well.

As a gaming tablet it's bar none the best product out there and by a massive margin. But as a tablet/consumption device? I'm not so sure. The Shield tablet has a niche and would be a decent buy for anyone looking for a tablet, but the GPU performance is (understandably) overemphasized. I'd like to buy this, but I'd want 32GB w/o LTE and perhaps a 10" form factor. It's also a bit bulky compared to the competitionReply

"the vast majority of people looking to buy a new Android tablet would be better off with a GPU that's lower performance but better perf-per-watt//battery life"that's the beauty of the performance / battery control center that nvidia offers. You can adjust the performance of the CPU and the GPU. You can even cap the max fps. The difference between battery saving mode and max perf mode is around 50%, bringing SHIELD Tablet on par with other low performance devices when comes to battery life. Great no ?Reply

What's still not 'great' is that 32GB requires purchase of LTE and means a hefty premium. Furthermore, it's still too chunky for a modern tablet (gotta cool that Tegra K1 somehow). And the stylus, while nice, is wasted on an 8" display. There's still no .ac WiFi either.

Don't get me wrong. It's a very nice device, but it fills the role of 'gaming tablet' better than it does a regular tablet. For those not focused on a gaming device, a Nexus 7 is still a better buy. Reply

Reaching par with the competition ? LOL and when I need max performance where's competition ? Stop to see only things from one side...and BTW SHIELD tablet with nvidia own version of app2SD can run software from microSD cards. it's even compatible with 128GB models ! Sandisk 32GB class 10 is less than $10...Reply

You can compare practically anything to Apple electronics and mark it as a 'good deal.' The only point you're making is the obvious one that nobody disagrees with -- Apple's stuff is overpriced.

The comment regarding 32GB was about the lack of a 32GB option w/o LTE. I tend to avoid external storage for any and every device I have (with good reason), and in 2014 a 'gaming tablet' -- or any other tablet/smartphone for that matter -- should come with 32GB standard. NAND is cheap, but companies looking to pad profit margins isn't. Reply

How good has Nvidia been with regard to software updates? I checked on the older Shield, it seems to get updates about once a month, but is still on an old 4.4.2 as far as I can tell. Maybe I'm just looking in the wrong spots. I'm considering grabbing one of these, but only if it will still be supported for a few years.Reply

4.4.3 was just a bug fix for Nexus devices. They've been pretty good at keeping the original Shield and the earlier note 7 tablet (i have one) updated. I've usually seen an OTA update every other month on my note 7 since I purchased it.Reply

Nvidia support on SHIELD has been great. First device out of Nexus to receive Kitkat, lot of upgrades that bring not only bug fixes but also new features. It's the golden standard on Android and they already stated that it will receive L quickly.Reply

Nvidia has a lot of software engineers and with no carriers delaying updates it's not bad. With some luck they might even have early access to Android L if any new Nexus is using Tegra so there is a chance they could deliver that update way fast.Reply

It pisses me off that Nvidia isn't more serious about the smartphone market. This started when they FAILED in the smartphone market, because they mistakenly designed their chips to consume too much power, in order to beat others on performance (but because of delays they most failed on that, too), and now they've kind of just decided to go along with making "more" powerful chips, that can mainly be put just in tablets.

It's very annoying. They should focus again on smartphones FIRST, and then just overclock or whatever, for their tablet version. It's harder to do it the other way around, when they focus on performance, and build more power-hungry architectures for that, that aren't as suited for phones.Reply

That is a common misconception. Snapdragon 600 (used in numerous high end smartphones), Snapdragon 805, and certain variants of Snapdragon 800 do not have a modem integrated on die. Apple smartphones do not have a modem integrated on die.

The difficulty in getting into the smartphone market has nothing to do with consumer "trust". Qualcomm is able to effectively bundle their modem with their application processor. Note that certain large wireless providers (such as Verizon and Sprint) have legacy networks that require Qualcomm's WCDMA tech.

FWIW, the expectation is that Tegra K1 will show up in some differentiated high end smartphones by year end. For a smartphone it would probably be sensible to use the Denver 64-bit variant of Tegra K1 due to the improved CPU power efficiency. Reply